§2A1.3 Voluntary Manslaughter: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2023
Restitution was ordered for 20 of the 43 people (47%) sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2023 under §2A1.3, "Voluntary Manslaughter." The median prison term was 97 months (8.1 years), and 44% of sentences were within the guideline range.
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In brief: Restitution was ordered for 20 of the 43 people (47%) sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2023 under §2A1.3, "Voluntary Manslaughter." The median prison term was 97 months (8.1 years), and 44% of sentences were within the guideline range.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 43 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2023. Acquittals and dismissals come from a second source, the Federal Judicial Center's records of 753,808 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. It is part of the Federal Prosecution Analysis series, which builds on Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System. How the numbers were built: How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built.
Restitution and Other Orders
Restitution is money a court orders paid to a victim. In fiscal year 2023, it was ordered for 20 of 43 people (47%). No fine was ordered (0%).
Supervised release followed prison for 42 people (98%), and the median term was 36 months. Supervised release is the period of court supervision after prison.
Prison Terms in Fiscal Year 2023
All 43 people (100%) received a prison term. The median was 97 months. A quarter of the group received 72.5 months or less, and a quarter received 120 months or more.
The median for all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under this guideline is 99 months, which is slightly higher than 2023. In fiscal year 2022 the median was 107.5 months, and in fiscal year 2024 it was 109 months. Across every guideline in fiscal year 2023, the median was 30 months. The fiscal year ran from October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 27 | 108 months | 96% |
| 2017 | 30 | 113.5 months | 93% |
| 2018 | 23 | 83 months | 96% |
| 2019 | 27 | 96 months | 96% |
| 2020 | 12 | 100.5 months | 92% |
| 2021 | 28 | 91 months | 96% |
| 2022 | 40 | 107.5 months | 88% |
| 2023 | 43 | 97 months | 91% |
| 2024 | 50 | 109 months | 86% |
| 2025 | 45 | 111.5 months | 96% |
Position Against the Guideline Range
The Guidelines Manual calculates a range for each case. In 19 cases (44%), the sentence was within the range. In 15 (35%), it was above it. In 3 (7%), it was below the range at the government's request, and in 6 (14%), it was below without a request.
For all years of this guideline, 46% of sentences were within the range. For every guideline in fiscal year 2023, 42% were. The 44% here falls between the all-years figure and the all-guidelines figure.
Guilty Pleas and Trials
A total of 39 people (91%) pleaded guilty, and 4 were convicted after a trial. The median prison term was 97 months after a guilty plea and 114 months after a trial. The trial group has only 4 people.
Among the guilty pleas, 97% had a written plea agreement and 3% were straight pleas. A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 2 of the 43 people (5%). A mandatory minimum is a floor for the term, set by law.
Criminal History
In this group, 51% were in category I, the lowest criminal history category, and 7% were in category VI, the highest. Court-martial files have no criminal history field.
What to Keep in Mind
The Commission filed these cases under Manslaughter. The approved crosswalk pairs this guideline with Article 119 of the UCMJ, and the comparison posts cover that pairing. This post reports federal numbers alone.
The records do not include acquittals or dismissals, and the terms shown are terms imposed, not time served. They also do not show the facts or reasons behind any sentence. It may be too early to tell whether any 2023 change in federal sentencing affected these cases, and these figures cannot show whether one did.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2023 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2A1.3 (43), U.S. Sentencing Commission individual data files. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count.
Federal fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30. No person, judge, or lawyer is identified in any of these records.
What to Keep in Mind
No parole in federal prison; credit for good conduct. Federal prison has no parole for crimes committed on or after November 1, 1987. A federal prisoner can earn up to 54 days of good conduct credit for each year of the sentence the judge imposed, which is about 15%. Some federal prisoners can also earn First Step Act time credits, but many offenses make a person ineligible. The numbers in this post are the sentences judges imposed, not the time people actually served.
Federal supervised release. Most federal prison sentences are followed by a term of supervised release that the judge sets as part of the sentence. A person who violates it can be sent back to prison. A court-martial cannot sentence anyone to supervision after release. Military parole and mandatory supervised release are decided later by a board, not by the judge at trial.
Who decides the sentence, and under what rules. Federal judges sentence every federal case. They must calculate the Sentencing Guidelines range, which is advisory, and must impose any mandatory minimum the statute requires unless an exception applies. In courts-martial, the accused could choose sentencing by members until the rules changed. For cases in which every guilty finding is for an offense committed after December 27, 2023, a military judge sentences alone, within sentencing parameters. Courts-martial tried in 2024 and later include both old-rule and new-rule cases, and the data cannot tell them apart.
Time periods. Federal numbers are by federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30), based on the sentencing date. The military numbers are by trial date. Neither source has the date of the offense, so a change in law shows up in either data set gradually.
How life sentences and "time served" are counted. In the federal numbers, a life sentence is counted as 470 months, and any other sentence longer than 470 months is counted as just under 470 months. A sentence of "time served" is counted as one day (0.03 months). Averages are affected by these rules; medians much less.
Mandatory minimum sentences. Many federal statutes on drugs, images of child exploitation, child sex abuse, and firearms carry mandatory minimum prison terms. The UCMJ has mandatory minimums only for a few offenses (a dishonorable discharge or dismissal for rape and sexual assault, and life for premeditated murder). Federal sentences for these offenses are partly set by Congress, not by the judge.
Related Analysis
- Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System (the background article)
- Federal Prosecution Analysis (all federal posts)
- How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built (sources and method)
- §2A1.3 Voluntary Manslaughter: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2A1.3 Voluntary Manslaughter: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2022 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2A1.3 Voluntary Manslaughter: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2024 (previous or next fiscal year)
- How Often Federal Judges Sentence Outside the Guideline Range
- Mandatory Minimums: How Many Federal Sentences Are Set by Congress
- Guilty Pleas in Army Manslaughter Cases: How Often, and What Came Next (court-martial data)
- Navy-Marine Corps Article 119 Cases by the Numbers, 2017–2025 (court-martial data)
- What Sentence Follows a Navy-Marine Corps Manslaughter Conviction? (court-martial data)
- Article 119 (Manslaughter): Court-Martial Data and Trends (court-martial data)
- Article 119 UCMJ: Voluntary and Involuntary Manslaughter (law firm reference page)
- U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles (source)
- Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants) (source)
About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.